Levi's Reversibles: Making a virtue of irreverence

They are funky, ruthless and irreverent. They are the votaries of Reversibles, a new line-up of jeanswear and T-shirts from Levi's Sykes that can be worn inside-out and … well … outside-in.

Exploring this USP is a quartet of television commercials created by JWT, Bangalore. We will look at two of them in detail. First, the 'Double Agent at War' film. This film opens with two soldiers, a man and a woman, in black uniform on the run in a forest, trying to escape a volley of bullets. They are being hunted down by another group of gun totting men dressed in dull grey. Stopping to catch breath in an abandoned outpost, the man reaches for a bottle of water. As he gulps down the water, he notices his colleague unbuttoning her shirt. Flummoxed by the sudden turn of events, he reaches out for his gun as the enemy party closes in on him. Cut to his fellow soldier. She is now dressed in the enemy uniform (which happens to be the reverse side of this gent's uniform). It is obvious she was leading our man to where he could be taken easily. The super reads ‘Levi's. Reversibles. Sykes. Next change.'

The 'Selfgoal on a Soccer Field' film opens in a football match being played on a sea beach. One team is dressed in red and the other in yellow. Supporters cheer as both the teams struggle to strike. In the midst of the action and the cacophony of the supporters one of the players in yellow jersey shoots the ball skywards. Another player from the same team jumps in the air and kicks the ball towards the goal. The ball misses the net. A player from the red team quickly passes the ball to his team-mate (he is also wearing red!), who instead of lopping the ball away from the danger zone, kicks it right into the net! And to the astonishment of his opponents and team-mates, celebrates his goal with great pomp and vigour. In a couple of moments, everything falls in place as our man in red pulls out his shirt, reverses it and wears it yellow side out.

There are two more ads in the series. In the ‘Campus' ad, a girl gives proxy attendance for the entire class and in the 'Water Baby' TVC a guy ignores the entreaties of a damsel faking distress. All of this for her/his Reversibles.

Clearly the communication of Reversibles tries to appeal to the "wild side of the youth". "Every element of the communication springs from the youth's style of giving an irreverent and unexpected spin to life," informs a JWT spokesperson. "This advantage of knowing the other side is what the Reversibles communication aims to enshrine, while actively encouraging the youth to experiment more, with a little help from the functionality of the clothing."

The creative idea of exploring the wild side is born of a simple human insight - there are two sides to everything. "From a coin, to a piece of paper, to an audio cassette, to motion, to relationships, to debate, to dialogue, to sports, to war, to life and every other thing out there," says the JWT spokesperson. "The creative strategy is to own everything that has two sides to it. And brand the changeover from one side to another with Levi's Sykes Reversibles, Next Change."

Reversibles is the first offering from Levi's Sykes. According to JWT, the brand aims to appeal to the youth's unending desire for newness and their yen to experiment with their identity. "Sykes takes a leap from the insight by offering innovative clothing positioned on ‘The Power of Experimentation'," explains the JWT executive.

The brand idea of Reversibles has been extended to other media elements as well. A poster campaign is running across movie theatres in the country. The campaign spoofs on popular films to feature them in the reverse. Among these are Men In White, Return of the Purple Panther and The Green Lagoon. The same campaign will soon be released in film magazines. The print campaign spoofs the elements of music television - the songs, the bands and even the lyrics. Reverse radio will also be on air soon. Songs will be played from back to front, bands will change colour, lyrics will be turned inside out and so on. © 2003 agencyfaqs!